Late Night Consoling

Interesting mix of news; one company on the rise, the other spiraling to its death. New accessories on the horizon, others being phased out. I just thought it was funny. Anywho, good luck to Swingin' Ape as they work on finishing StarCraft: Ghost, giving it the classic Blizzard polish that makes their titles stand out. It's refreshing to see a company stand up for quality instead of pushing out an unsatisfactory product to cash in on the holiday season.

StarCraft: Ghost Resurfaces Blizzard announced tonight that the developer Swingin' Ape has taken over the creative duties of the console tactical shooter StarCraft: Ghost. "The team at Swingin' Ape Studios is a very talented group of developers with a proven ability to deliver extraordinary games," stated Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder. "We're confident that this partnership will result in titles that achieve the level of quality that players have come to expect from Blizzard products." No other specifics were revealed. Swingin' Ape was the crew behind last year's Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.

Acclaim Loses MLB/Turok Licenses In a 10-K report filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, game developer and publisher Acclaim listed that, due to late payments on royalties, they have lost their licenses with Major League Baseball (MLB) and Classic Media, Inc., the owners of the intellectual property Turok. In the 10-K, Acclaim said they were in discussions with both companies "...in an effort to resolve this matter amicably." Personally, I don't see the problem with losing the latter license.

Mario GCN Controller Argh, the Japanese get all the cool stuff. The latest is a GameCube controller with a Mario theme. With a top half that's red and the bottom-half blue, the controller also sports the signature "M" that is on Mario's famous cap. It's being offered exclusively through the "Club Nintendo" program. Can't wait to see how much it goes for on eBay.

GBA Video Phone Here's another Japanese product we'll probably never see: a video phone for the Game Boy Advance! Manufactured by Campho, the device allows users to transfer voice and video over typically phone lines for super fun communication purposes. The device sends an image of 110,000 pixels at a whopping five frames per second. Included in the package is a headset and the set retails overall for about $180 USD.

Sony Ends Production of PSone LCDs The missing component of a poor man's PSP, the LCD screen for the PSone will no longer see production by the end of this summer. Sony will fulfill one last order for Japan and then it's done. The device had been manufactured for two years with not much success.

Far Cry Instincts Delayed Ubisoft revealed that the console version of their PC success story, Far Cry Instincts, has been pushed back to Q1 2005. The game has been getting a bad rap since E3, so the move is to guarantee it is as fun and entertaining as its PC daddy.

Misc. Q&As/Interviews GameSpot speaks with David Doak, producer on Second Sight, being developed by Free Radical.